Automatic garage door opening systems have become very popular in the past twenty years such that residences wherein a person has to manually open and close the garage door are the rare exception. The typical garage door opener system comprises an electric motor unit mechanically coupled to the garage door through an associated track mechanism, a wireless receiver electrically connected to an actuation switch circuit of the motor unit, one or more actuators mounted at convenient locations in the garage for opening and closing the garage door, and a wireless remote control device typically kept in a vehicle for opening and closing the garage door from within the vehicle. Almost universally, garage door opener systems also include a safety sensor that prevents the garage door from closing if a person or any object is in the path of the closing door. This safety feature prevents the garage door from injuring a child or a pet that might be in the door's path, and it also prevents the garage door from damaging inanimate objects, such as a vehicle that has not been fully pulled into the garage.
Unfortunately, typical garage door opener systems have no way of alerting a user if the garage door has been left open unintentionally. Many users routinely push an actuator next to the door into their residence to close the garage door as they enter their residence. Commonly, the user does not wait to see if the door completely closes. Accordingly, if an object such as a child's toy is located in the path of the door, or the safety sensor is misaligned, the door with will not close and will automatically return to its fully open position. Additionally, many garage door opener users will for whatever reason just leave the garage door open and forget to close it before they retire for the evening.
Many people keep valuable items in their garages such as power tools and bicycles that can be easily taken from the garage by nefarious individuals who pass by an open and tempting garage during the night when most if not all of the applicable residence's occupants and the occupants of neighboring residences are asleep. It is not uncommon for a homeowner to have something of value taken from their garages at some point in their lives because they mistakenly left the garage door open.
Various remote monitoring systems are known that indicate to a person located in a remote location from the garage door, such as in a bedroom of the associated residence, whether or not the garage door is open. Examples of such systems are described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,597,291; 6,522,258; 6,184,787; 6,049,285; 6,166,634, 5,883,579; and 5,689,236. While the specifics of these systems vary, none of them provide any mechanism for closing the door from the remote location. Rather, the person noticing the signal from the device that the garage door is open has to get up, walk over to the garage door, and activate the garage door opener to close the garage door. This can be an inconvenience, especially when the room the person is coming from is on a second floor.
Other systems are known that automatically close an open garage door without input of a person after the satisfaction of specific criteria. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,463,292, 5,510,686, 5,752,343, 6,469,464, and 6,563,278 all teach systems that automatically closes a garage door after a set time interval. U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,343 also teaches a device that will close the door when it becomes dark. Unfortunately, if there is something blocking the door, the door will not shut and a person will have no idea the door was not in fact closed. Additionally, these devices have the potential to lock the owner out of their home if the door automatically closes while they are outside.